The best group blog Algonquin College social media students have ever written

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As we wake up this Monday, October 22, its election day in Ottawa. This is the day for municipal local elections to take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors, councilors, and school board trustees for a new four-year term. So, it’s an exciting day, especially for all those running for office. Stats tell us that in Ottawa alone there are around 189 candidates on the ballot, 634,000 eligible voters and 350 voting places across the city to make your mark! Finding all this information has been made so much more readily available by the internet and going online using different social media platforms to gain election information.

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Of course, politics and election talk seem to always be in the news especially across the border in the United States. An interesting article from ThoughtCo by Tom Murse talked about the ways that social media has changed politics. He lists 10 ways that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have significantly changed how campaigns are run and the interaction between the running parties.

Direct Contact with Voters – this allows politicians to speak more directly with voters

Advertising Without Paying for Advertising – many political campaigns can add YouTube commercials and publish them for free

How Campaigns Go Viral – both Twitter and Facebook are instrumental for organizing campaigns. News and information can reach so many instantly. The “share” and “retweet” become campaigners’ friends!

Tailoring the Message to the Audience – getting to know the followers and their preferences and the selected demographics. This can all prove most effective.

Fundraising – a larger crowd to reach in a short time to ask for financial support – this has been known in some cases as “money bombs”. Usually supporters have a 24-hour time period to give for a specific cause.

Controversy – this can be one of the downsides. Direct access to voters has to be monitored carefully. Unfiltered tweets can be detrimental in losing support or causing embarrassing situations. Probably the current President Trump could add to that point!

Feedback – this keeps politicians in the loop and makes voters feel their voice is being heard

Weighing Public Opinion – this is so key now in all campaigns – knowing how people are reacting and responding to various issues allows for adjustment saving time and possible not losing supporters.

It’s Hip – social media is in which then helps to engage the younger voters.The millennial crowd make up a large number with very influential sway for support. Barack Obama is a key example of how the power of social media helped his campaigns immensely.

The Power of Many-allowing like-minded to join together and become very powerful for their cause.

So, from reading some of the points above do you agree with some/all of them? Has your view on politics and following election issues changed with the use of social media more? Tonight, we will be starting to wait for the results of the election. For sure the information that comes in is much quicker with people sending information through social media channels. If you haven’t decided on who to vote for yet, you can go on line right now and get the scoop on each candidate. It’s all quick and at your fingertips. So, don’t forget today to Vote and Make your Mark!

The past lesson has had us looking at types of social media measurement and monitoring. Taking it to a more personal level where monitoring is referred to as listening. Certainly, a big step in all aspects of business is when you want to get to know how your business is being liked and what both good and bad is being said about it. Also seeing who is doing the talking as well as following the leads and how far the message is travelling, right to the level of influence. With that said is there a difference between social monitoring and social listening? David Hartshorne at Sendible.com wrote that ‘Social media monitoring is the practice of using a social technology platform to notify you of a conversation so you can react to it. Where Social media listening is the practice of using a social technology platform to investigate what is being said in online conversations to learn, question, explore and glean insights to be more informed.’

Studying famous stars with their social media usage varies greatly. Taylor Swift has been known to be called the “Queen of Celebrity Social Media.” According to some stats from Gentwenty, Taylor has over 70 million likes on Facebook, 43 million followers on Twitter and 100 million plus followers on Instagram. Wow, do you or your business have such a following? Probably not. So what accounts for some of Taylor Swift’s popularity? She has 5 practices she likes to guide her with social media. She has says to KNOW your audience, ENGAGE with others, SHARE original content, DIVERSIFY your accounts, BE CREATIVE with your message. She has proven even more recently in the last week that even talking politics her fans listened. She broke her political silence on Instagram and encouraged listeners to register to vote. An article in The Washington Post said within 48 hours of the post there were 169,000 new registrations with more than half between the age of 18 to 29.

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So, Taylor Swift did just as her song title says: ‘Speak Now” – she put her Democratic political views out there and fans listened. Democrats definitely listened and young people just turning 18, eligible to vote listened with many registering so they can be heard in the political world. In the instant world of social media its proven that monitoring and using the vast types of platforms can get good things out there as well as bad things. What are you doing to monitor your social networks and followers out there for both your business and personal interactions? Do you think you are listening well? Is there more you can be doing? It’s a constant time of changes and trying to understand. We will always be learning and engaging with new people gaining more incite. Another song of Taylor’s says. “Call it What you Want.”

As I write out the title I am finding myself feeling slightly violated and confused? We continue to study social media and its advancements and how it has made communication so much easier than ever before. With just a touch of a button we can communicate with anybody anywhere in the world. For sure Facebook has made communicating a much more instant experience. With almost 500 million users accounts, Facebook allows users to share photos, comments and view peoples personal information. It has become considered one of the most popular websites, and with that some security trust as well. Exciting news or is it really??

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So the end of September saw me celebrating a birthday, That brings a special day of celebrations and with Facebook now an even bigger presence of personal birthday greetings and friends connecting. By midday all of a sudden reading friends greetings on Facebook my phone went blue and a message saying that my Facebook time had expired and I would have to log back in to continue. So I stared at my phone, and thought now what?? What’s up with that?? What does it mean and what should I do??

By that evening there was a security update and information being released by Facebook that as many as 50 million Facebook users might have been hacked or in another sentence described as possibly “directly affected”. In reading further it stated that actually a few days before, the engineering team at Facebook discovered a security issue affecting almost 50 million accounts. It appeared that the attackers found a vulnerability in Facebooks code targeting the “View As” feature that allows people to see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This meant the attackers were able to steal Facebook access tokens which could then be used to take over people’s accounts. Feeling very concerned by now I kept reading, further reports said that being early in the investigating stages Facebook was unsure which or if any accounts had been misused. Part of the fix to the trouble areas, over 90 million people were finding themselves being logged out of their accounts and then having to log back in. So after all that was I hacked? How serious was the security breach and should I be worried?? CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg said to reporters shortly after the press announcement: “The reality here is we face constant attacks from people who want to take over accounts or steal information…we need to do more to prevent this from happening in the first place”. So were you hacked? Were you logged out and had to log back in?? Do you still trust Facebook and want to keep using it???

Social Media The New Way of Communication

A recurring question I have been having more and more: Just how effective is social media in communication. Does it really work? History has recorded that for thousands of years very primitive forms of communication were done to leave a message and signs of existence for others that followed. Some of the earliest ways of communication that historians have found were through cave drawings, then expanding to smoke signals to try to reach more in a short distance. Then with progression came carrier pigeons, pony express being the first courier service then advancing to the telegraph and morse code, then greater still the radio, telephone, television and now to computer, internet and the smart phone.

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Wow, so from cave drawings to currently, internet and smart phones. This past week brought to light instantly and tragically how important social media can play in communication, especially with emergency situations. For sure the question Are You Ok? was being sent out and asked to individuals and loved ones all over the Ottawa and Gatineau areas. Environment Canada confirmed that six tornadoes touched down in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. Some reached gusts of up to 265 kilometre per hour causing severe damage and lengthy power outages.

So yes, social media does really work as a communication tool. Proven by First Alert Ready, Canada’s New Emergency Alert System sent out tornado warnings on smart phones and computer devices. This aided in getting people alerted to possible danger and to take appropriate cover. Following the after math and destruction, social media played big roles in communities in many forms. Smart phones played key communication devices, allowing people to check with loved ones and ask Are You OK?Then as hours turned into days people started to use Facebook and Twitter to help coordinate cleanup efforts, recruit volunteers and inform the public what supplies, food, resources were needed and in what areas. Any one reading this, were you affected by the recent storms in the area? Did you use forms of social media for getting information out and communication with others. Do you agree that social media is a good form of communication in emergency situations?